The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that over 206,000 candidates will be required to retake the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) due to technical issues experienced during the initial process.
The decision comes amid growing public outcry over the widespread failure recorded in this year’s UTME, with parents, educationists, and student questioning the integrity of the examination process and calling for urgent reforms.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, disclosed this on Wednesday, following complaints from candidates, parents, and other stakeholders over the high failure rate recorded in the 2025 UTME, in which thousands of candidates failed to meet the minimum benchmark.
While speaking at a press conference, Oloyede thanked the media for their consistent reporting on the activities of the Board and recognised the concerns that had been raised by members of the public.
He admitted that a major technical problem had negatively affected the results of 206,610 candidates, including those who wrote the examination in 65 centres across Lagos and 92 centres within the Owerri zone, which covers five states in the South-East.
The Registrar explained that around 1.5 million students participated in the examination this year, and although over 18,000 complaints were received at first, only 15,000 of them were confirmed to be genuine after proper checks.
He added that 98 percent of the confirmed complaints came from specific exam centres, and this finding made it clear that organising another exam for those affected students had become very necessary.
Professor Oloyede pointed out that the decision to hold a resit was not made in a rush, but rather after careful thinking to protect the fairness and trust of the examination system.
He encouraged the students who would be retaking the exam to understand that the decision was made to ensure that everyone has a fair chance and that the whole process remains open and honest.
